Kadiapatti Journal; Trading Clan's Great Wealth Now Covered in Dust

By STEPHEN KINZER

Published: January 30, 1998

KADIAPATTI, India—
All the Italian marble floors and Burmese teak columns in Krisnappan Chettiar's mansion, even all the colonnaded dining halls and upstairs bedrooms that have been shut for years, cannot give a true picture of the opulence in which the Chettiar community lived during its glory days.

''Well, my people were money-lenders in Burma,'' Mr. Chettiar explained as he greeted a visitor on a recent afternoon. ''Then in the 1940's, money-lending was outlawed there. All our business groups were closed. Had to leave everything behind, you see, and come back to India. I've ended up here, with more rooms than I can count.''

The carved facade of Mr. Chettiar's home here in southern India, which depicts a dazzling array of mythological scenes, needs cleaning. Cobwebs clog corners that he and his two part-time maids do not get around to cleaning.

Still, the impression of decline is more than offset by the lavish riches visible in Mr. Chettiar's darkened salons. Columns and elaborate wall panels are decorated in ornate South Asian styles. Among them are European objects, including a painting of Edward VII's coronation in 1902.

Scores of such mansions dot the 600-square-mile Chettiar homeland. Together they tell the story of a remarkable trading clan that accumulated vast wealth and shaped the course of Asian history.

The Chettiars form an extended group of large clans. Many members have the surname Chettiar. Although their origin is lost in the mists of time, a second-century Tamil epic describes them as already established in southern India.

They have no distinct religious or linguistic identity, nor any identifiable racial roots that distinguish them from other Indians. Nonetheless, centuries of intermarriage and a shared tradition of business success have given them a strong sense of community.

Many centuries ago, the Chettiars already had a reputation in commerce. During the period of British rule, they founded great banking houses and backed countless businesses and imperial ventures in Indochina, Singapore, Ceylon, Malaya, Sumatra and other outposts.

Chettiar families trained their children in accounting from an early age. One of their favorite names, for boys or girls, was Muthu, or pearl, a reminder of the trade that was the basis of much of their wealth.

''Without the assistance of the Chettiar banking system, Burma would never have achieved the wonderful achievements of the last 30 to 35 years,'' a British imperial officer, Sir Harcourt Brown, wrote soon after the turn of the century.

Not everyone saw the Chettiars' contribution so benevolently. The independence movements that spread through the continent after World War II led to confiscation of many their properties. Tens of thousands of Chettiars returned home, but none fell into poverty. By tradition they had sent much of their wealth back home, investing it most visibly in their enormous mansions, which loom up from the red earth every few miles. Some are elegant and spiritually inspiring. Others approach the boundary of good taste. A few cross it.

Tradition dictated not only that Chettiars should accumulate wealth, but also that they should spend it in three ways: to build and maintain their mansions, for charity, and for their overwhelmingly lavish parties marking weddings, important birthdays and other life passages.

All three kinds of spending were on display in January at a 110-year-old palace in Kanadukathan. A staff of 50 was busy adjusting the chandeliers, polishing the ornamental elephant tusks and dusting the life-sized portraits of past rajahs.

Photos, medals and silver cups in glass display cases commemorated the family's generosity in founding a university, a hospital and other civic institutions. And plans were being made for a three-day family wedding in mid-February to which 25,000 guests have been invited.

''It will be like the ones we used to have,'' one servant said. ''This doesn't happen very much anymore.''

The Chettiar community today numbers about a million, half in India and the rest in Singapore, Malaysia, Australia, Britain, the United States and elsewhere. Perhaps the most prominent member is Pala niyapan Chidambaram, India's Finance Minister.

None of the great Chettiar families are as rich or powerful as a century ago. Most have moved to cities, and even the best maintained of their mansions give an eerie sensation of emptiness, like magnificent film sets after the crews have gone home.

On the unpaved back alleys of Karaikudu, one of the largest Chettiar towns, several antique shops offer treasures that wealthy families are quietly selling off. One is a veritable museum of lost glory.

A satinwood chest from Ceylon (now Sri Lanka) still has all its original brass fixtures. A woven cane tray from Burma, delicately painted red and black in a goddess-and-elephant motif, looks as new as it must have 75 years ago. Doors and pillars hewn from teak logs floated here around the Bay of Bengal fill a back room.

On one wall hangs a sepia 1920's portrait of a modern-looking Chettiar family in a Chevrolet convertible, a woman at the wheel and a poodle siting on the lawn in front. Hanging from another wall is a deep-relief stone lintel depicting two deities bowing to the Hindu god of wealth. A sturdy walking stick tipped with an ivory eagle leans in a corner.

Perhaps the most poignant display, however, is of a dozen great safes, some bearing metal tabs that say, ''P. L. M. Moothiah Chettyar & Sons Manufacturing.''

The oceans of wealth that flowed through these safes can hardly be imagined, nor can the sparkle of the jewels they held. Their age and condition portray the passage of time as well as any tangible object can.

''These families simply are not as rich as they used to be,'' said Val Soundararajan, a broker in Chettiar goods. ''They have things they can't use anymore -- quite a few things.''

Photo: Krisnappan Chettiar's opulent mansion reflects the wealth of his clan, but there are cobwebs in the corners and ''more rooms than I can count.'' (Sudhir Ramchandran for The New York Times) Map of India showing location of Kadiapatti: The Chettiars of Kadiapatti made fortunes as bankers and traders.